China improves energy efficiency in Q2  

China’s energy efficiency improved in the second quarter of this year, following a crackdown on wasteful industries initiated earlier this year to reverse a decline in efficiency that alarmed the country’s leadership. China’s consumption of energy relative to economic output increased for the first half of the year by 0.09% from the year-earlier period, the National Bureau of Statistics said. But that pace was much slower than the 3.2% increase in energy intensity the fuel used per dollar of gross domestic product that China reported for the first quarter, suggesting an improvement in the April-June period. China last year promised to reduce the amount of carbon emissions per dollar of economic output by 40% to 45% by 2020 compared with 2005 levels. (August 4, 2010)